From What Was: New Compact Alfa Romeo Crossover Appears in First Teaser

The Alfa Romeo brand, part of the Stellantis corporation, has published the first image of its upcoming compact crossover, currently known as the Alfa Romeo C-SUV. The premiere of this new model is not expected until the fourth quarter of 2027, and official briefings indicate that no surprises should be expected from the Alfa Romeo C-SUV.

In May, the Stellantis corporation presented its new five-year development strategy called FaSTLAne 2030, at which time it was also announced that the status of the Alfa Romeo brand had been devalued from global to regional, which implies that Alfa Romeo's development will be carried out on a residual basis.

Over the next five years, Alfa Romeo will introduce just two new models — the C-SUV crossover and a low-volume sports car from the special projects division Bottega Fuoriserie, which was launched at the end of last year and serves both the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands simultaneously. We suspect that the new Alfa Romeo sports car will be based on the recently updated Maserati GranTurismo coupé; there are no official briefings on this model as yet, but there are now some for the Alfa Romeo C-SUV.

The press release states that the Alfa Romeo C-SUV will be underpinned by the modular STLA Medium platform, and its production will be set up at the Stellantis plant in the Italian commune of Melfi. From these briefings, it is not difficult to conclude that the Alfa Romeo C-SUV will be a technical clone of the recently unveiled Lancia Gamma and DS No. 7 crossovers — they too are assigned to the Melfi plant. The DS No. 8 and the third-generation Jeep Compass, also based on the STLA Medium platform, are already produced there.

The teaser of the Alfa Romeo C-SUV shows a section of the sloping rear end, indicating a kinship with the Lancia Gamma. It is clear that the lighting and many other design elements of the Alfa Romeo C-SUV will be its own, but the range of powertrains will be roughly the same as that of other Stellantis models on the STLA Medium platform. This means that powerful petrol versions should not be expected; only the expensive and heavy plug-in hybrid and electric versions with 400-volt architecture will provide any reasonably decent performance.

An inquisitive reader familiar with the FaSTLAne 2030 strategy might ask why the latest STLA One platform with 800-volt architecture was not rolled out for the Alfa Romeo C-SUV. We do not know the answer, but we suspect it is because Stellantis management does not yet want to spend a single extra euro cent on Alfa Romeo's development, and is therefore using ready-made solutions.

Meanwhile, the first production car on the STLA One platform is promised for the same 2027 year in which the Alfa Romeo C-SUV is due out. Presumably, it will go to a model from one of Stellantis's global brands — Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, or Fiat.

What commercial name the Alfa Romeo C-SUV will receive is not yet known, but some Western media outlets insist that the name Giulietta will be pulled from the archive for it.

The new C-SUV will effectively replace the current compact crossover Alfa Romeo Tonale in the model line-up, which is produced at the plant in Pomigliano d'Arco (Italy). In 2027, this plant will be repurposed for the production of cheap electric vehicles under the E-Car project, which are due to hit the market in 2028.